Communications network architectures have experienced significant notoriety because they can offer the benefits of automation, convenience, and data management for their respective online communities. Certain network protocols may be used in order to allow an end user to be matched to other end users or to scenarios in which they stand to benefit (e.g., job searches, person-finding services, real estate searches, online dating, etc.).
In the case of an online dating service, for example, an end user will typically be prompted to specify a variety of preferences to be used in matching the end user with other end users in the particular online dating service community. This specification may be accomplished by the end user responding to questions designed to elicit explicit preferences of the end user or by the end user rating a variety of qualities on a scale of very important to not at all important, for example. The end user may also be presented with an opportunity to identify “deal breakers;” that is, characteristics or behaviors that if possessed or engaged in by a potential match render that person immediately and irredeemably undesirable. Additionally, the end user may be presented with the opportunity to specify certain “must haves,” which are the opposite of deal breakers; in particular, they are characteristics or behaviors a potential match should possess or engage in to even be considered by the end user. The information each end user provides about him or herself may be viewed by other end users in the online community in determining whether to interact with that end user.